DESCRIPTION:
Composer and lutenist Jozef Van Wissem is devoted to what he terms "the liberation of the lute." Taking a experimental approach to Renaissance and Baroque forms of lute music, his compositions for the instrument have involved a dynamic mix of conceptual, minimalist, classical and improvisational strategies, seamlessly bridging the language of 17th century music with that of the 21st . Van Wissem variously uses cut-and-paste tactics, field recordings, free improvisation and palindromic composing (by playing pieces forwards and then backwards). The resulting sound world is at once meditative and surprising, new and arcane.

Van Wissem's music is uncluttered and direct, with a viscerally hypnotic and emotional impact, delivered with an ascetic intensity reflected both in his biblical titles and his No Wave influences. He has records out on Important Records, Sacred Bones and his own Incunabulum label and has collaborated with James Blackshaw, Keiji Haino and Jim Jarmusch, amongst others. He has lectured on "The Liberation of the Lute" at Harvard, Wesleyan University, and Mills College. In 2008 The National Gallery of London commissioned Van Wissem to compose a sound piece for Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors.